The necessity of fostering the development of new polymers was the main requirement of previous meetings of the working group “Matrices” (Lead: Prof. Dr. Michael Heine, University of Augsburg / MRM) and working group “Fiber-Matrix-Adhesion” (Lead Dr. Christina Scheffler, Leibniz-Institut für Polymerforschung Dresden e.V.).
These meetings at the European Polymer Congress (epf-2015) in Dresden at June 2015 and in Bayreuth at the Neue Materialien Bayreuth GmbH (NMB) in January 2016 results in a position paper. Deepening this paper was the main topic of the current meeting.
The expected future developments in transport of persons and goods at onshore, offshore and aviation, at mechanical engineering as well as in civil engineering and infrastructure justifies an engagement in any case.
The CCeV and the Allianz Faserbasierte Werkstoffe Baden-Württemberg e.V. (AFBW) are foreseeing the correlated activities for resource protection at materials and energy as a booming factor for economy.
Managed by Prof. Heine, a core team will define additional experts initiating - a roundtable discussion with the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) defining the basic concept for a development strategy and preparing a national program of emphasis.
The optional funding by the DFG will initiate a fundamental stimulus. The infinite multiplicity of possible polymers concerning the aspect of novel production processes results in scientific projections for plenty applications.
Besides the technological and scientific aspects of polymer systems, the interaction between the fiber surface and the polymer matrix is essential. Morphological topics of the interlayers influences the effectiveness of the fiber composite.
“Being most successful, not only following evolutional concepts, we need polymer chemists typically not working with polymers within the material science” Prof. Heine is underlining.
A big part of the manufacturing costs bases in the consolidation process when combining the liquid polymer and the fiber. New materials systems help to reduce costs enabling new processes with shorter infiltration and faster hardening.
Further aspects of polymer development are the combination of fiber reinforced composites with metals, timber and concrete.
The next meeting of the working groups will be in Sept 2017